Euthanasia And Living Wills

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Term Paper Title	Euthanasia And Living Wills
# of Words	1037
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.15

Euthanasia and Living Wills

Euthanasia and Living Wills

THE STORY

     Imagine someone you love...better yet, imagine yourself lying in a
hospital bed oblivious to the world around you, unable to move or show any signs
of life,  your own existence controlled by an I.V., a respiratory machine, and a
feeding tube.  In essence you are dead.  Your body is no longer able to sustain
life, its entire purpose is now replaced by a machine - you are being kept alive
by artificial means.  At this point the question arises - should you be kept
alive by these means or should you be allowed to die a natural death?
Unfortunately you are unable to answer this question because your voice is
limited to a "beep" on a heart monitor machine.  Who then is going to decide if
you live artificially or die naturally?  Who gets to play God?  Well, if your
family doesn't have your written consent in the form of a living will, to cease
life support, then the doctor will make the ultimate decision for both you and
your family.
     Most often this is the case.  Even though writing a living will is just
as easy if not easier than writing a death will, many people don't take the time
to do so.  Therefore, doctors have to debate the question of euthanasia - a
question that each one of us should ponder long before we are put in this
situation.
     What is euthanasia?  Euthanasia is not mercy killing.  It has absolutely
nothing to do with killing.  On the contrary, euthanasia by definition simply
means "good death" and in the applied sense it refers to "the patients own
natural death without prolonging their dying process unduly."  What this
attempts to accomplish is to allow a person to die with peace and dignity.  In
most cases life-support systems simply prolong the terminal suffering of a
patient by a few more weeks or months,  they do nothing to return a patient to a
normal functioning human being.  With most terminally ill patients life support
does not mean prolonging life - it means prolonging suffering, for both the
patient and their family.
     Although there are no statutes legalizing euthanasia in the U.S. many
doctors end a terminal patients life by administering a fatal dose of a drug
that they were previously administering.  Furthermore, most hospitals knowing
that there is little or no hope for a terminal patient, provide less than
adequate attention and care to them.
     A living will makes the possibility of this entire situation virtually
non-existent.  A living will is the patient's w...

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